Robert Frost's poem "A Cliff Dwelling" reminds me of the people who must have lived here "Oh years ago--ten thousand years" and enjoyed the beauty and safety of a cliff. A place "to rest from his besetting fears". Welcome to mine.

In 2014 I featured a series of blog posts introducing you to 2,014 names. For the most part they were names that were brand new to me as well. Some names may be more familiar but I found the meaning or origin or some other aspect of the name made it worthy of inclusion here. You may love some of the names, you may hate some, but hopefully you enjoy learning about all of them.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia, Passed in 1855-56, in the Eightieth Year of the Commonwealth

Isaac Brill - two candidates I have for this would be Isaac C. Brill, born 1796 in Frederick County, VA, son of George Frederick Brill and Elizabeth Batchelor. Another would be Isaac C. (Cline?) Brill son of Henry Jefferson Brill, Sr. and Elizabeth Orndorff. It's also possible that this is Isaac W. Brill, born 28 Oct 1835 to Joseph W. Brill and Rebecca Orndorff (he would have been 21, so I doubt this was the one.)

I have an Amos La Follette born 25 Sep 1810 in Virginiaand died 19 Jan 1890, son of William La Follette and Jane McKee and married to Sarah Mariah Racey, though he would have been married to 2nd wife Rachel T. Spaid by this point. He was father to Eliza Ann La Follette.

I have a Felix Good, II married to Rachel Orndorff. He was born in 1794 and died in 1875.

John K. Triplett was the brother of Elizabeth Caroline Triplett, my 4th great-grandmother, so he would be my 5th great-uncle. Robert V. Lockhart was his nephew - but not Elizabeth's son. Elizabeth was the 2nd wife of Josiah Lockhart and Robert V. Lockhart was from his first marriage to Nancy O'Dell. So Elizabeth was his step-mother. In 1856 Robert would have been 47 years old. He was the Postmaster in Gore and ran the Tavern once his father Josiah handed it over to him. He is the General Lockhart killed by Union troops at the ice house near the Tavern.

Henry M. Baker was the nephew of Sarah Lockhart Baker. Sarah was Robert V. Lockhart's aunt. However, because Henry was her nephew through her husband's side of the family he was not actually related to Robert V. Lockhart. Henry's father was Henry William Baker, brother to Sarah's husband Joseph Baker. Sarah was Joseph's second wife. Both Joseph and Sarah had died by this point, but their son Colonel Robert Lockhart Baker was still living (Col. Baker was 1st cousin to Robert V. Lockhart).

The right to form the turnpike company to build the road was considered a few years before this.

Friday, July 18, 2014

That's the number of names I've introduced you to so far this year. After today's 6 names, you will have learned 926. Which means there will still be 1088 names left to learn!

GIRLSNatu - Finnish, a variant of Nata, which is a short form of Natalia and Natasja. Natalia comes from the Latin 'dies natalis' which means "birthday of Christ" or Christmas. Natasja is the Nordic spelling of the Russian name Natasha, which is a fom of Natalia.Oeroe- Greek, one of the names of the nymph Plataia. The nymph of a fresh water spring in Boiotia, which is in central Greece, the name Oeroe for her referred to the small stream which flowed from her fresh water spring. It flows into Creusis bay in the Corinthian Gulf. Plataia was kidnapped by Zeus and taken to Mount Kithairon. She was the daughter of Asopos (a river god of the river Asopos) and Metope. She had 2 brothers and 11 sisters. She also seems to have been the nymph who alerted Artemis that Actaeon was spying on her while she bathed (poor Actaeon was changed into a stag by Artemis and then torn apart by his own dogs).

Thursday, July 17, 2014

With the 6 names you learn today, you will have only 1094 names left to learn this year.GIRLS

Helisson - Greek, the name of a town in Arcadia (in Greece), it was near the source of the river Helisson (nowadays called Elissonas). This river is a tributary of the Alfeios. The town was founded by Helisson, a son of Lycaon (so technically, Helisson is a masculine name, I just like the looks and sounds of it for a girl more). No one knows exactly where the town is anymore. It was abandoned around 371 BC, though there was still the ruins of a statue of the god Poseidon in the 2nd century AD.

Apparently the name is still in use as a boy name. It is pronounced 'HEL ih son'.

Ia - Greek, meaning 'violet flowers'.

Jacquelle

BOYS

Kaaleppi - Finnish form of the name Kalle, which can be used as a nickname for Karl or for Kaleva. Kaleva is a name from Finnish myth. It 'might' come from the Lithuanian 'kalvis' meaning 'smith' or the Estonian 'kalev' meaning 'red cloth'.

Monday, July 14, 2014

Nisaea - Greek. This was an ancient port. It is pronounced 'nih SAY uh'. There is also a sea nymph called Nicaea and an ancient city in Turkey that was called Nicaea. I haven't found out yet if their etymology or meaning is the same.

Nisaea was a port near Megara, which is on the western border of Attica near the Gulf of Corinth

Ocyroe - Greek, the name of a nymph that in Ovid's Metamorphoses was turned into a horse. Pronounced "oh SEAR oh ee".

Photine - Greek, meaning "luminous one" or "enlightened one" from "phos" meaning "light. The name given to the woman by the well who speaks with Jesus, a Samaritan. She is a Christian Saint considered Equal-to-the-Apostles and by some as the first evangelist to spread the gospel of Christ. She was one of those martyred in 66 AD. She is also known as Photina or Photini or as Svetlana. She is celebrated on Feb 26th, Mar 20th, and the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman. The Sunday of the Samaritan Woman is the 5th Sunday of Pascha.

BOYS

Quirinus - the name of a Roman god and meaning "wielder of the spear", it may come from the Sabine word 'quiris' meaning "spear" or the Sabine town called Cures, or possibly from the word 'curia'. Another idea is that it means "oak-god" coming from the word 'quercus'.Quirinus is pronounced "queer EYE nus". Quirinus did eventually become a way of referring to the Roman god Janus.

Rabirius - Rabiria is an ancient Roman family name and Rabirius comes from this. Pronounced "rah BEER ee us".

Sempronio - Spanish, from the Roman family name Sempronia. This family was important during the Roman Republic, but not during the Roman empire. It's interesting to me that certain 'praenomia' or first names were more popular with this family than others, and are separated by the class level the family was (patrician or plebeian). The patricians seem to have preferred Aulus, Gaius, and Lucius while different branches of the plebeian Sempronii (that's the plural form of the family name) tended to use Publius, Tiberius or Titus, Gaius, and Marcus. Each branch of the Sempronii had a surname, and these were: Asellio, Blaesus, Densus, Gracchus, Longus, Musca, Pitio, Rufus, Rutilus, Sophus, and Tuditanus. Atratinus was the only patrician branch of the family and Gracchus the most famous branch.

Back to our lovely Spanish first name based on the Roman family name. Sempronio is a character in one of the most famous works of Spanish literature "La celestina" and is the name of a servant. I thought of featuring this name when I first came upon Sempronius in a book on how to pronounce certain names and it seemed familiar to me. That's when I remembered Sempronio. It turns out that Sempronius is also the name of a character in a play by Shakespeare (Timon of Athens). Shakespeare's time was after that of La celestina, which was published at the end of the 15th century.

Sempronio is the one who suggests that the 'hero' of the play use the services of Celestina to gain access to the young woman he lusts after (we can't really say this story is much about two people in love so much as one about desire).

Saturday, July 5, 2014

That's how many names we still need to learn in 2014 to reach our goal of learning 2,014 new names this year. We are learning 6 names today so that means we have 1,136 names left to learn. It also means that we have now (with today's names) learned 878 new names in 2014.

GIRLS

Prunelle -French diminutive for prune, which comes from the Latin 'prunum' which comes from the Greek "prounon" which is a form of "proumnon" which means "plum".

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

someone comes to be called Barefoot. I am supposing that the 18th century American I came across yesterday with this name was just known to everyone as Barefoot and so they wrote his name that way even for wills, marriages, etc. Because I really can't imagine naming your child Barefoot.

For the record, I think Zettie is absolutely adorable for a little girl (and yes, I also approve of Nettie, Hattie, Harriet, Henriette and Henrietta, Zenetta, Etta, etc.). Cambyses is too interesting to discard simply because of how unusual it is. It might win me over. I'm evaluating the strengths of Vernabelle over Edmonia (the first sounds more pleasing, the second has the 'nia' ending, both have cute nicknames, but at the same time seem, opprobrious - is that the word - in their attempt to fit a man's name on a girl and make it seem a girl's name.) But I can say definitively that Dowdell, at least as I imagine it pronounced and see it spelled, has no chance of convincing me to like it whatsoever. I will admit that I like some of the possible nicknames, but 'doody' seems to be one possibility as well as 'dumb bell' and 'dowdy' that turn me off of the name completely.

Oh, here's a good question to ponder: what name would Zettie be a good nickname for? Also, would the right middle name make Edmonia or Vernabelle do-able? Is there some other way to tweak them and make them more modern?

Can anything at all be done for Dowdell? (and do you think this is a man's name, woman's name, or unisex)

And are you one of those people who could justifiably put Barefoot down on official documents as your name?

GIRLS

Vernabelle

Zettie

Edmonia

BOYS

Barefoot- this really was the name used as someone's first name in some colonial American research I did. Now maybe he was just called Barefoot so much as a nickname that when they filled out a will or whatever they still referred to him as Barefoot. But it is also possible that this was his given name and not a nickname. I can only imagine it is meant to indicate someone who walks about barefoot when others have on socks or shoes.

John Denny in New Castle County, Delaware

"Egoiste"

Lockhart House

Was this the Samuel Lockhart, captain of the Sloop Mary in the 1720s?

First Regiment Maryland Infantry - Civil War

from vol 11 page 185 of Historical Papers and Addresses of the Lancaster County Historical Society

From the Pennsylvania Archives

Samuel Lockhart - landowner in Augusta County

Josiah and Robert Lockhart - subscribers to a new road from Philly to Lancaster June 1792

land Josiah Lockhart (not the Brigadier General) had title to in Pennsylvania.

My Great-grandmother's Family Tree

Harriet Esther Laramie was my father's paternal grandmother. Her father was French Canadian and an early settler of Escalante, Utah. Harriet was a beekeeper and ran a ranch and raised 10 children on her own after her husband died in his forties. My dad has fond memories of "Grandma".